


Fairy Tales

by Mssilverwoods



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25131541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mssilverwoods/pseuds/Mssilverwoods
Summary: "She's perfectly preserved and age won't whither her." The crone rolled her eyes and cackled. “Oh alright, she’ll wake when her true love kisses her. Is that spooky enough for you?”
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Fairy Tales

**Author's Note:**

> God knows where this came from but it's a fairy tale with a bit of swearing. Sleeping too.

Scully slept a lot but this was more than he’d anticipated. 

Eight hours was her average and Mulder tried to be patient as insomniac partners ought to be. He tried his best not to call her at strange times of the night and even tried to block her number after midnight. If he woke her up a minute too early then she'd complain about not having enough beauty sleep. Not that he'd ever dare to tell her that she didn't need it, not a second of it in his eyes. He'd not tell her that anymore than he’d confess to finding motel rooms away from main roads so she’d sleep more peacefully. Be professional. 

Yet the situation he found himself in right now was desperate even by his standards. He glanced at his watch. Five days she had been snoozing in the hospital bed, where he laid her in the early hours of day two, feeling faintly stupid.

It was a simple stop, he'd promised her. A quick stopover on the long drive back to Washington. A tiny place, Sleepless. He thought it was an amusing name. On closer investigation it had an old ruinous attraction, and was known for getting a lot of snow. 

It had started well enough. The hotel was perfect, the breakfast was bountiful and it was snowing. They flopped onto a sleigh pulled by reindeers which leapt over the sparkling snow. He’d felt his heart go with them as Scully laughed and clung to him for dear life. 

Then he'd spied the blessed ruin. Standing tall above the rooftops, he was curious. If pushed, he would admit he wanted to take a tour, uncertain that the magical construction of turrets and balconies was real. It looked like something from Disneyland. Still, Scully was the one who'd spun the spinning wheel whilst she'd listened to him reading the guide book, pricked her finger and fainted.

He'd assumed it was a faint though he couldn't think why. A doctor could not be fearful of needles as he dashed down the steep stairs, his arms full of her. It was the elderly woman that worried him as he clattered into the hallway, mindful of other watchful visitors.

"Touched the spinning wheel did she?" The woman reached out to move Scully’s hair. Mulder stepped back, unwilling to share his burden. He felt certain that if she was to touch his partner, something awful might happen.

“She needs some food,” Mulder realised that they had enjoyed a big breakfast and he hid his growing alarm with a calm smile. “I’ll get her home.”

"She's not faint, your lovely lady." The crone grinned a toothless smile, blocked his path and pulled her shawl around her in satisfaction. "That wheel is cursed."

Mulder held Scully tighter, as if by sheer strength he could get her to wake and wished he didn't have to utter his next words. "What's the curse?"

"She'll sleep for a hundred years." The reply seemed distastefully triumphant.

"But she'll die. I will…” He gazed down at her peaceful face in alarm. "What's the cure?"

"She's perfectly preserved and age won't whither her." The crone rolled her eyes and cackled. “Oh alright, she’ll wake when her true love kisses her. Is that spooky enough for you?”

Mulder stood firm and glared at her. "Bullshit."

“Bumfuckery to you too.” The woman sniffed,”You’ll see."

Mulder growled and began to walk away. Bollocks. Then he stopped. He had no idea who Scully’s true love was. He told himself to pull it together, the old woman knew nothing. He'd find a way to wake her even if he died doing it. Holding her carefully, Mulder carried Scully back to the hotel, determined to get her to safety. It was only as he opened the door and went to shut it, he realised, with utter astonishment, that the ruin had vanished.

Still she slept.

Mulder studied her through day one. Took her pulse, temperature and dug around in her bag for a blood pressure cuff. Peeked at her eyes. All the things she had taught him to do. Thankfully all was well but if not that, what then?

He loaded up the car, and with a heavy heart, drove them back to Washington. He went straight to the hospital, handed over his notes and they agreed with him but gave her a private room and wired her up. She simply was peacefully and beautifully asleep. 

Endlessly he sourced herbs, spices and found himself consulting religion and witchcraft in his quest to wake her. Doctors and nurses kept watch over his sleeping Scully. 

By day seven, Mulder asked if he might stay with her so she wasn’t alone in the darkness. When he wasn't trying to solve this puzzle, he curled up with a blanket, stared at her face and heard her voice in his mind. In his nightmares he dreamt that he'd never find her true love to wake her up. 

Now it's past day ten and she is still asleep. His nightmare is coming true.

He starts with Ethan who hangs up on him. Tries to locate Marcus who has passed away. An elderly man called Daniel shuffles in and gives her a peck but doesn't think it'll work, Tells Mulder to give it a go. Ed Jerse is dead, Mulder confesses depair to the Gunmen appear and urge him to try. Melvin looks wistful but tells Mulder it's not him. Urges Mulder and threatens to send Skinner in.

He can’t. It’s not him. She’s been pissed at him for weeks after Diana, threw the book at him about his behaviour around Phoebe and Bambi. Oh, and Detective White. Threatened to quit a few times. He might love her, but she's not loving him. It'll take more than Disney reindeers. 

There’s a movement at the door. Bill. Mrs Scully. Oh, crap.

Mulder sighs. 

“You can’t go back to the place, find the wheel?” Bill asks. He’s surprisingly quiet for Bill. Why did the wrong Scully go to sleep?

“The thought never occurred to me.” Mulder sighs and apologises. “If I start doing that, it’s like I believe in this bullshit.” 

“You don’t?” Maggie asks as she pats her daughter’s hand.

“It’s a folk tale, a myth…” Mulder begins.

“Isn’t that what my sister has been hanging her career on for these past few years. She wouldn’t do that for anyone she didn’t love.”

Mulder goes home to get a change of clothes, feed the fish and a rest. He's ironically rather tired, he starts to think that Bill has a point.

He had a vague notion that he might be able to wake Scully until he caught sight of himself in the mirror, tie askew, the makings of a great beard and red eyes. He sees a sorry son of a bitch with a pathological obsession for the strange was hardly the man of her dreams. Before he could berate himself further he shook his head at Bill’s words. How could Scully be in love with a paranoid man who was both running away and towards himself? Bullshit.

He drove back to the hospital and collapsed onto the camp bed for the eleventh night and found himself still wide awake hours later, very aware that he'd run out of people. There was nobody else to ask. This, Mulder knew, was the point of no return. He knew from the start that if not him, then who else? That the truth of her feelings, might be more than he wanted to know.

Haunted, he slipped from the covers, crept across and paused. Not for the first time, but aware that, as he laid his lips to hers with every atom of love he felt, it maybe the last if she didn't stir.

As she woke and rewarded him with a big smile, he knew that they were destined to be together for ever after, and that Bill really did have a point. And if he ever wanted to wake Scully again, all he had to do was pucker up.

The End.


End file.
